On September 14, 1862, Robert E. Lee's opportunistic first invasion of the North was turned back at the gaps of South Mountain near Boonsboro, Maryland. The fighting was desperate and for the numbers engaged rather bloody. It has become just a footnote in history, but it was here that the Confederacy reached it's high tide.

South Mountain by Rick Reeve

South Mountain by Rick Reeve depicting the wounding of General Garland

Saturday, April 6, 2013

"We immediately moved forward in line to assault the enemy's lines, under a severe and galling fire."

In the late afternoon of September 14 on the rolling hills outside of Burkittsville, Maryland, the 5th Maine Infantry deployed as part of the initial Union assault on the Confederate defenses at Crampton's Gap. Commanded by Colonel Nathanial Jackson, the regiment pushed forward on the left of Colonel Joseph Bartlett's brigade fighting to a standstill with the Confederate defenders before being forced to withdraw to resupply their cartridge boxes. The regiment would take part in the final bayonet charge up the side of the mountain that would capture Crampton's Gap. Colonel Jackson reported the regiment suffered 4 killed and 28 wounded in the fight. Listed below are known casualties totaling 18 men (64% of reported in Official Report)

Killed:Private John Bryant, Company ISergeant E.C. Chadbourne, Company CPrivate Oliver Fletcher, Company IPrivate Samuel Lufkin, Company I

Wounded:Private Jonathan Alexander, Company GCaptain Hamlin Bucknam, Company K Private James Cooley, Company G Private Abraham Chase, Company EPrivate Charles Dore, Company K Private John Godfrey, Company F Private John W. Goodwin, Company BCorporal S. W. Hatch, Company D Private James Kelley, Company CPrivate John Linscott, Company B Private William Maxim, Company BPrivate John H. McIntire, Company B Private Portland A. Wilson, Company GPrivate Alvah Withee, Company H

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About Me

I am a student of the Civil War. I've had an interest in studying this conflict since I was ten and my passion for it has just grown ever since. I want to bring to life the stories of those men who fought and bled so that this nation could experience a "new birth of freedom". I am a former NPS intern at South Mountain State Battlefield and also a former Historical Intepreter at Fort Frederick State Park.